Digital lighting technologies, i.e. illumination based on semiconductor light sources, such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs), offer a viable alternative to traditional fluorescent, HID, and incandescent lamps. Functional advantages and benefits of LEDs include high energy conversion and optical efficiency, durability, lower operating costs, and many others. Recent advances in LED technology have provided efficient and robust full-spectrum lighting sources that enable a variety of lighting effects in many applications. Some of the fixtures embodying these sources feature a lighting module, including one or more LEDs capable of producing different colors, e.g. red, green, and blue, as well as a processor for independently controlling the output of the LEDs in order to generate a variety of colors and color-changing lighting effects, for example, as discussed in detail in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,016,038 and 6,211,626, incorporated herein by reference.
Light sources such as LEDs may be integrated with textiles to create so-called “illuminated textiles.” For instance, light sources may be coupled into a textile and out again using, e.g., optic fibers. As another example, light sources such as LEDs may be embedded into a textile using conductive thread. In some instances, in addition to or instead of integrating light sources into the textile, light may be projected onto a textile, e.g., as visible light or ultraviolet light (e.g., to illuminate a fluorescent textile).
Illuminated textiles may be used for various purposes. In an architectural context such as in a retail space or an office, illuminated textiles may be used as curtains, wall or ceiling coverings, spaced dividers, furniture, carpets, and so forth. Illuminated textiles may also be used in other domains, including clothing, car interiors, etc.
It may be desirable to have control of which of a plurality of light sources of an illuminated textile are illuminated, as well as control of one or more lighting properties of one or more of the light sources. For example, it may be desirable to control color, color temperature, intensity, beam width, and/or direction of light output provided by one or more LED-based light sources. Control of illuminated textiles may be achieved using external devices such as mobile devices (e.g., remotes, smart phones, tablet computers). However, it is also desirable to control light output from illuminated textiles without an external computing device, in a manner that is simple, intuitive and/or inexpensive.
Thus, there is a need in the art to provide illuminated textiles, methods, apparatus and systems that enable control of one or more properties of light emitted from illuminated textiles, and that optionally overcome one or more drawbacks of existing apparatus and/or methods.